Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment and Rapid Buildings Appraisal of Penistone Grammar School, Huddersfield Road, Penistone, Barnsley

In May 2007, ARCUS were commissioned by Barnsley MBC to undertake a desk-based assessment of Penistone Grammar School, Huddersfield Road, Penistone, Barnsley (centred on SE 240 038). The assessment was requested in relation to a planning application for redevelopment at the site and comprised a walk-over survey and rapid buildings assessment, along with documentary and cartographic research. The desk-based assessment indicates that medieval activity occurred immediately south of the proposal area, with Nether Mill perhaps occupying the site of Penistones former manorial mill. The proposal area was part of a field system at the time of its enclosure in 1819 and is likely to have been in agricultural use during the post- medieval, and perhaps medieval, periods. No structures were shown within the site prior to the construction of the Penistone Union District Workhouse in 1859. Weirfield House was constructed at the north of the site in the years following the 1851 map and by 1892 had been bought as the new site of Penistone Grammar School. Several of the buildings within the school complex are of architectural and historic interest. Weirfield House is an example of mid- to late 19th-century country house architecture for gentry houses and retains its original fixtures and fittings, along with elements of the former soft landscaping scheme to the front and rear of the property. Two purpose-built, early 20th-century school buildings also retain many of their historic details and fittings. The former workhouse buildings were designed by the renowned 19th-century architects Lockwood Mawson, and their original layout is almost complete. Recent modifications appear to have had a relatively minor impact on the buildings historic fabric. The house, the two purpose-built school blocks, and the workhouse complex may be worthy of recording via an historic buildings survey.